Tuesday 5 February 2013

The Blue Eyed Aborigine


Jan Pelgrom is an ordinary Dutch cabin boy on a ship called the Bactavia which is advancing to Java. When the ship sinks, Jan is stranded on an island with the Under Merchant of the ship, Cornilez. Cornilez dreams of power and punishes all traitors, and even turns Jan into his personal servant! This is the first half of this brilliant book but the second half is even more exciting and shocking. Stranded on an island with Wouter (a soldier) and lots of aborigines, Jan is forced to hunt for food to survive. As Wouter leaves camp to find food, Jan becomes friendly with the aboriginal tribes and an unexpectected incident leaves them together forever.
This shocking and gripping story is based on the true tale of the Bactavia and although the life-like and funny characters are not real, the events are.